Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/170

 156 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

can all be stated from the control standpoint. But I will not multiply instances, and I need not point out that all conflict, exploitation, showing off, boasting, gambling, and violation of the decalogue, are designed to secure control, however unsuccess- ful in the end.

There is, however, a still more serviceable standpoint for the examination of society and of social change, and that is attention. This is by no means in conflict with the category of control. Control is the end to be secured and attention is the means of securing it. They are the objective and subjective sides of the same process. Attention is the mental attitude which takes note of the outside world and manipulates it; it is the organ of accom- modation. But attention does not operate alone; it is associated with habit on the one hand and with crisis on the other. When the habits are running smoothly the attention is relaxed ; it is not at work. But when something happens to disturb the run of habit the attention is called into play and devises a new mode of behavior which will meet the crisis. That is, the attention estab- lishes new and adequate habits, or it is its function to do so.

Such conditions as the exhaustion of game, the intrusion of outsiders, defeat in battle, floods, drought, pestilence, and famine illustrate one class of crisis. The incidents of birth, death, adolescence, and marriage, while not unanticipated, are always foci of attention and occasions for control. They throw a strain on the attention, and affect the mental life of the group. Shad- ows, dreams, epilepsy, intoxication, swooning, sickness, engage the attention and result in various attempts at control. Other crises arise in the conflict of interest between individuals, and between the individual and the group. Theft, assault, sorcery, and all crimes and misdemeanors are occasions for the exercise of attention and control. To say that language, reflection, dis- cussion, logical analysis, abstraction, mechanical invention, magic, religion, and science are developed in the effort of the attention to meet difficult situations through a readjustment of habit, is simply to say that the mind itself is the product of crisis. Crisis also produces the specialized occupations. The medicine- man, the priest, the law-giver, the judge, the ruler, the physician,